Mediabreaker: Remix Tool to Foster the Next Generation of Jon Stewarts

August 14, 2015

By Educator Innovator

Mediabreaker is a first-of-its-kind, free, cloud-based video remix tool developed by The LAMP—a New York-based nonprofit organization and an Educator Innovator partner—to help people critique and deconstruct media content through remixing.

“Fortunately, there are more efforts now to bring traditionally marginalized communities into the fields of media and technology. Nonprofits abound which focus in getting girls, low-income youth or people of color into coding, robotics and various STEM fields. Diversifying voices in media is a step in diversifying media content, but it is only that – one step. As Sonia Livingstone, professor at the London School of Economics, said in a 2014 report, ‘Coding is a great idea but it’s not enough. Decoding today’s media – to recognise misleading and exploitative content, to appreciate what is available and to grasp the emerging opportunities – doesn’t come automatically or naturally. This is a time to strengthen media education.’ If we can’t teach people to identify misinformation or stereotypes and demand better from media, then the same forces that have contributed to our current lack of diversity will keep their stranglehold on power and popular narrative. Harmful media messaging must be called out for it to end, and the producers behind that content need to understand that it’s no longer acceptable.”